Friday, 24 August 2012

J. Kingston Pierce’s Book to Die For -- The Eighth Circle by Stanley Ellin

J. Kingston Pierce is the editor of the
crime-fiction blog The Rap Sheet,
which has won the Spinetingler Award and been nominated twice for an Anthony
Award. He also writes the book-design blog Killer Covers and serves
as senior editor of January Magazine. Pierce is the
author of more than half a dozen non-fiction books, including San Francisco: Yesterday & Today
(2009), Eccentric Seattle
(2003), and America’s Historic
Trails with Tom Bodett (1997). He lives in Seattle, Washington.

I’m always surprised when I get to
talking with committed detective-fiction fans, and I ask them whether they have
read Stanley Ellin’s The Eighth Circle
... and almost invariably, the answer is “no.” In fact, I can count on the
fingers of one hand the number of people who’ve actually said “yes” to that
question.

How is it that The Eighth Circle, which was first released back in 1958 and a year
later won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery Novel, could be so roundly
forgotten? Well, it doesn’t help that it hasn’t been reissued much over the ensuing
decades; the last edition appears to have come out in Britain in 2004. Certainly
the handsomest and probably the most coveted version, however, is the Dell
paperback from 1959 (shown below), which features a Robert McGinnis cover illustration.
I like that edition so much, I’ve purchased a handful of copies over time and now
pass them out to readers who seem especially deserving of an introduction to
this remarkable tale.

The Eighth
Circle ranks
as a standout because it doesn’t try to jam in all of the conventions of the
genre, and even endeavors to play against a few. Yes, this is a private-eye
novel with a certifiable member of that breed as its protagonist: Murray Kirk,
the son of a New York City grocer, who, after an unsuccessful stint practicing
law, answered an advertisement to join Frank Conmy’s upscale Manhattan investigations
firm and was hired on the spot. And yes, it boasts a plot filled with dire
possibilities: Kirk, who’s now risen to become the suave head of the firm, and
has even taken over the late Mr. Conmy’s elegant Central Park-side apartment,
is hired to save the bacon of Arnold Lundeen, a policeman attached to the Vice
Squad, who’s been caught up in a huge corruption scandal linked to a city-wide
betting ring. But there’s no classic femme fatale in these pages, unless you imagine
schoolteacher Ruth Vincent, Lundeen’s black-haired and long-lashed fiancée, to
be more dangerous than she ever lets on. Furthermore, there are no bloody
demonstrations of fisticuffs here, or even a gun drawn until well into Ellin’s
story--and that weapon turns out to contain no bullets.

Ellin, who’s said to have studied several
P.I. firms before sitting down to pen The
Eighth Circle, offers here what at least seems to be a more realistic
portrayal of the mid-20th-century sleuthing biz. Complete with officious
secretaries. And plenty of paperwork and accounting responsibilities. And some
boredom besides--because really, no modern enterprise exists independent of the
periodically mundane, does it?

What ultimately propels this novel’s plot
and keeps the reader hooked is the ethical quandary in which Murray Kirk finds
himself. Despite his much-studied air of professional distance, he winds up
falling hard for cop Lundeen’s unflashy but warm-hearted betrothed. In fact, he
reasons that if he could get Lundeen out of the way--somehow reveal or
manufacture the man’s guilt without leaving too many of his own fingerprints
behind--he could have Ruth Vincent all to himself. The problem is, the more
Kirk works on this case and tries to redirect things to his advantage
(something that isn’t entirely lost on his veteran employees), the more clearly
he recognizes the innocence of his client and the consequent hopelessness of
his heart’s pursuit of darling Ruth.

It’s only too bad that Ellin abandoned
Murray Kirk after The Eighth Circle
(though he did go on to compose other P.I. novels, including 1979’s Star
Light, Star Bright). As the exemplar of a less-disheveled,
more-businesslike and morally divided gumshoe, he could really have been a
contender in this genre.

1 comment:

Here's another finger for you to count on. I read and enjoyed "The Eighth Circle" in ancient pre=DBB days.===============================Detectives Beyond Borders"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com